"08 - The SSR Sings the Blues" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues

by Harry Harrison

CHAPTER 1

Walking up the wall had not been easy. But walking across the ceiling was
turning out to be completely impossible. Until I realized that I was going
about it the wrong way. It seemed obvious when I thought about it. When I
held onto the ceiling with my hands I could not move my feet. So I switched
off the molebind gloves and swung down, hanging only from the soles of my
boots. The blood rushed to my head-as well it might bringing with it a
surge of nausea and a sensation of great unease.

What was I doing here, hanging upside down from the ceiling of the Mint,
watching the machine below stamp out five-hundred-thousand-credit coins?
They jingled and fell into the waiting baskets-so the answer to that
question was pretty obvious. I nearly fell after them as I cut the power on
one foot. f swung it forward in a giant step and slammed it solidly against
the ceiling again as I turned the binding energy back on. A generator in
the boot emitted a field of the same binding energy that holds molecules
together, making my foot, at least temporarily, a part of the ceiling. As
long as the power was on.

A few more long steps and I was over the baskets. I fumbled at my waist,
trying to ignore the dizziness, and pulled out the cord from my oversized
belt buckle. Bending double until could reach up to the ceiling, I pushed
the knob at the end against the plaster and switched it on. The molebind
field damped hard and I released my feet. To hang, swinging, right side up
now, while the blood seeped out of my florid face.

"Come on Jim-no hanging about," I advised myself. "The alarm will go off
any second now."

Right on cue the sirens screamed, the lights blinked, while a gargantuan
hooter thundered through the walls. I did not tell myself that I told me
so. No time. Thumb on the power button so that the immensely strong, almost
invisible, single-molecule cord whirred out of the buckle and dropped me
swiftly down. When my outstretched hands clinked among the coins I stopped.
Opened my attachщ case and dragged it clanking through the coins until it
was full of the shining, shimmering beauties.

Closed and sealed it as the tiny motor buzzed and dragged me up to the
ceiling again. My feet struck and stuck: I switched off power to the
lifting lug.

And the door opened below me.

"Somebody coulda come in here!" the guard shouted, his weapon nosing about